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The new Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform’s container architecture enables rapid innovation, flexible modernization and avoids vendor lock-in, the vendor says
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Blue Planet’s AI studio helps CSPs solve business problems using pre-built use cases developed by Blue Planet, from the service provider’s own AI scientists, or from third parties
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The platform is an implementation of Fierce Network’s “smart cloud” vision of networks that are self-healing, self-optimizing, self-defending, self-aware and operate without human oversight
Blue Planet is bringing the benefits of modern cloud-native architecture to service providers’ vital, venerable operating support system (OSS) applications, with the new Blue Planet Cloud Native Platform.
Based on Kubernetes containers, the platform is designed to allow communications service providers (CSPs) to simplify and automate OSS environments, for fast innovation and multi-cloud support to avoid platform lock-in, according to a statement from Blue Planet, which is a division of Ciena.
Blue Planet’s new architecture converges inventory, orchestration and assurance applications onto a common platform to improve operational efficiency and streamline service lifecycle automation, the vendor said.
Modernizing OSS reduces customizations and complexity and automates operations, resulting in increased agility and much lower costs, Blue Planet says. OSS modernization is key to CSPs’ vision to “transform into software-driven, AI-informed connectivity engines optimized to help end-customers access cloud, commerce, broadband, mobile and more,” according to the vendor. The Cloud Native Platform enables that transformation.
The platform enables in-service software upgrades (ISSU) and continuous integration/continuous delivery, to allow CSPs to use DevOps methodology to quickly introduce innovative new services, Blue Planet said.
Swappable AI
CSPs implementing the Blue Planet platform can reduce vendor lock-in and improve operational scale, flexibility and resilience with support for any cloud environment, including public, private and hybrid cloud, according to the vendor.
An AI Studio allows CSPs to apply pre-built user cases from Blue Planet, as well as AI models developed by their own data science teams, or from third parties, to solve business problems.
Blue Planet’s strategy is similar to Netcracker’s and Amdoc’s, according to analyst Roy Chua, founder and principal at AvidThink. Those vendors built their platforms to allow swapping different AI models, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic Claud 3.0 or Mistral Mixtral 8x7b.
“Given the rate of change in the AI/GenAI world, all of them are enabling pluggable AI pipelines/models that can provide better price and performance (accuracy, latency, reliability) in the future,” Chua said.
Blue Planet said that CSPs implementing its software platform will be able to cut down on so-called “spaghetti integrations” common with legacy platforms.
The software provides a common data model and user interface across multiple OSS applications and other shared functions, eliminating the need for custom integrations and resulting operational silos. CSPs can modernize at their own pace, rather than being required to upgrade everything all at once, by deploying individual applications independently or together. The common native foundation permits progressive modernization, leveraging AI and low-code/no-code development, starting from lower layers such as infrastructure and data and up to applications,
A step to smart cloud
The platform is cloud-agnostic. Blue Planet said its customers are working primarily with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. That’s not surprising, as those are the three major U.S. cloud providers.
The new software works with the vendor’s Blue Planet Inventory, Blue Planet Orchestration and Blue Planet Assurance applications.
Blue Planet's software is a big step toward the smart cloud vision described by Fierce Network's Stephen Saunders in January. “Smart cloud” describes fully autonomous networks, combining cloud observability, automation, AI and security, that run themselves, without human intervention.
Ericsson is implementing a smart cloud vision with its own automation strategy, unveiled just prior to Mobile World Congress in February. Cisco is doing so as well, as are Huawei and IBM.